Bridging Differences

In Bridging Differences
Deborah exchanges views with a different colleague, each for a month or two. Her current correspondent is Harry Boyte, a Minnesotan (although his roots are southern). He has always been a friend and mentor, even though we come to stuff in different ways and even disagree on and off. He is a professor and an activist, a theorist and a practitioner, with a focus on democracy—beginning a long time ago when he worked with Martin Luther King. He has written or edited ten books on the topic and founded a Center on
democracy which is now at St Augsberg College, but formerly at the University of Minnesota.

Thanks to Brenda Engel who put together a potential policy platform for the North Dakota Study Group (which is my favorite nonorganization). it never meets in North Dakota (except twice in its 38 year history—brrrrr), never engages in group-study, has no by-laws or elected leadership, never votes, occasionally acts (we ended our meeting early to show up in Madison, Wisc. one recent February), but makes us think aloud about the extraordinary work going on “back home”. One of it founders (Brenda) tried to put together what she thought were our common understandings’. It’s interesting to read. So..here it is: